Is There A Doctor In The House?
by Athena Alexandria
Summary: Set between There's No Place Like Home Part 3 and the flashforwards in There's No Place Like Home Part 1. As they try to settle back into the real world, a frantic message on Jack's voicemail brings Kate and Aaron back into his life. Jate.
1. Chapter 1

I've resigned myself to the fact that this is probably gonna go under the radar, but I miss writing (and watching and reading) canon Jate, and no one else seems to be doing it at the moment, so I decided to dip back into the embarrassingly large pool of FF ideas I've managed to collect. For some reason it was the one shot that wouldn't end so I split it into two parts. The rest still needs work but I'll post it soon if there's enough interest. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about (or abandoned) "Bedside Manners", I just needed to do something to help with the hiatus! This week has been crazy again but I should be able to get another update out over the weekend. ;)

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IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

Part 1.

As he slowed to a crawl, squinting through the windshield at the numbers on each of the letterboxes, Jack replayed the frantic message Kate had left on his voicemail inside his head: _"Jack? You have to come over – there's something wrong with Aaron. I tried calling the nanny but she's not answering her cell…"_

The neighbourhood that she'd directed him to was peaceful – idyllic even compared to the sterile apartment complex that he'd been about to go home to – but he couldn't help wondering if this was just the quiet before the storm. Who knew what lay behind any one of those doors?

He wasn't sure that he had the right house when he pulled up in front of an attractive split level with immaculate gardens and a well-manicured lawn until he checked the scrap of paper that he'd scrawled her address on again.

As he parked and got out, a million scenarios raced through his imagination, each more frightening than the last: What if someone from her past had caught up with her and tried to hurt her "son"? What if Widmore's people had gotten to them? What if Aaron really had contracted some mysterious sickness just like Rousseau promised?

He didn't wait for her to come to the door, his heart hammering inside his chest as he burst into the foyer. "Kate?" he called, halting, confused when all he found was her pacing the hardwood floor of the living room with Aaron in her arms. He was crying, but he didn't look like he'd been harmed. "What happened? Is the baby okay?"

"I don't know! He won't stop screaming!" she told him, her expression haggard as she bounced him against her shoulder.

Was that all? Jack breathed a sigh of relief, switching into clinical mode as he took off his suit coat and draped it over the back of the couch. "How long has he been like this?"

"A couple of hours. Since the last time I fed him," she confessed, her eyes growing wide with horror as a new thought occurred to her. "Oh God, you don't think… _I_ did this to him, do you? Because I always do _exactly_ what it says on the can!"

She looked like she was about to cry herself as she added, "This is all my fault. I poisoned him. I must be the worst mother in the world."

"Hey, calm down, Kate, it's okay," he said, rolling up his sleeves. "Give him here." He held his arms out for him and reluctantly she did.

"Just watch his head. You need to make sure you support it."

For a moment he wasn't sure that she was going to let go. "I've got it, Kate," he assured her, settling him on his back on the couch so that he could check him over.

He was a little overheated, but that could just have come from working himself up; he watched him pull his little legs up to his chest, his face red, his clenched fists flailing against the seat cushions. "It's colic."

"Colic?" she repeated with an uncertain look and he could tell by her tone that she didn't like that sound of it. "That's bad, right? It means I made him sick."

"It's pretty common in children his age," he tried to convince her with a gentle laugh when fresh worry lines appeared in her brow, but she refused to believe that it wasn't something she could have prevented.

"What is it?"

He grinned at how cute her concern was, deciding that he liked this new, softer side of her. "My guess? Wind."

She averted her gaze, glancing up at him with a sheepish smile. "So he probably can't die from it then?"

"Not unless he cries himself into an aneurism," he teased her.

He meant to lighten the mood but she paled. "That can happen?!"

"Relax, Kate. It was just a joke," he explained before she could panic again, struggling to contain his laughter as he amended, "I've never even heard of a baby dying from it."

Her colour returned as she let out the breath she was holding; a second later he felt her palm connect with his bicep through the thin fabric of his shirt.

"Ow," he complained as he lifted Aaron back against him, keeping him between them like a shield in case she decided that she wanted to hit him again. "Was that really necessary?"

"Don't ever scare me like that again," she told him, levelling him with a warning stare. "I trusted you, Jack, and you almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Usually he would have shown signs of digestive problems by now," he continued, moving the conversation along then, "but I guess the change in his diet could've brought this on."

"I haven't changed his diet," she insisted, confused. "Veronica – the nanny – showed me which formula to get and that's what I've been giving him."

"But you still had to switch him over to formula," he reminded her with a pointed nod at her chest, trying to be as tactful as he could.

She glanced down at it and flushed. "So how do we cure it?" she asked, pulling self consciously at her pyjama top to get his attention away from her breasts, making him all too aware of how low cut it was as he tried not to stare.

"There isn't really a cure – not one doctors swear by," he told her, forcing himself to stop checking her out and focus on Aaron. That was why she'd called him. "We just have to wait for it to pass."

"There's nothing we can do for him?" she asked with an unhappy look as the baby's face began to take on a purplish hue. "We just let him keep crying like this?"

"There're things we can do to make him a little more comfortable," he assured her.

"Like what?"

"Like we could give him a warm bath," he suggested.

"Okay, let's do that," she agreed, relieved, latching onto the idea. "The bathroom's upstairs. Come on, I'll show you where it is."

She led the way up to an elegant, cream tiled room that he was sure must be bigger than the main bedroom of his apartment, where he laid Aaron on the bench and began unbuttoning his overalls while she filled the tub.

"Careful. Don't drop him," she insisted, hovering behind him as he knelt on the mat and eased him into it.

"I'm not gonna _drop_ him, Kate," he scoffed. He could do this. He was a world-class spinal surgeon: how hard can it be to bathe a three-month-old infant?

"It's just that he's moving around so much…"

"I'm not gonna drop him," he repeated with more determination this time, concentrating on keeping the back of his head cradled in one hand as he sponged his delicate skin with the other.

"There, see? He'd doing better already," he told her when his wails subsided and he hiccoughed, lying placidly in his arms.

"So he is," she agreed with a smile, crouching beside him so that she could flick droplets onto his chest. "You're just a water baby, aren't you, sweetpea?"

They let him soak there, kicking his legs and splashing until it began to cool; then she held out a towel and Jack placed him inside, supporting him while she set to work drying his hair, his chest, his arms...

"Damnit," he swore under his breath when, after a few minutes of this, he started to whimper again. He was so sure that they had it under control.

He doubted that he could hear him over the sound of his own cries, but Kate covered Aaron's tiny ears with her palms, fixing him with a disapproving stare. "Not in front of the baby, Jack!"

"Sorry," he agreed with a smile. She couldn't see it yet, but motherhood suited her. He was enjoying watching her in mommy mode, even if she was convinced that she was doing a poor job.

She shot him a helpless look as, his batteries recharged, the baby resumed bellowing at the top of his lungs. "What'd we do now?"

"Let me think," he said, summoning all of his willpower to shut out the assault Aaron was making on his eardrums so that he could come up with a workable plan. "We could try a massage." That should at least ease some of his pain.

They brought him, still bundled in the towel, into Kate's bedroom and set him in the middle of the queen-sized bed. She fetched a clean diaper from the nursery and Jack manoeuvred it underneath him, fastening the tabs, leaving him undressed from the waist up as he perched on the edge of the mattress, rubbing his belly in a clockwise direction.

"I think he likes it," she said when he took hold of his calves and peddled them in a cycling motion and Aaron chuckled.

He knew that she'd spoken too soon when he stepped back to let her try and the baby started crying again, as soon as he removed his hands.

"Hey, no, no…" she muttered, replacing them with her own but it was too late. She sighed, leaning forward on her elbow to drop her face into her palm. "It's no good. We're never gonna get him to sleep."

The word 'sleep' trigged a new thought. "Kate, you're a genius," he told her, wanting to kiss her. If they could just get him to relax, then maybe he would pass out from exhaustion. He had to be getting tired. "Where's your vacuum cleaner?"

"In the closet by the stairs," she told him, distracted as she sat up, stroking the baby's scalp with a pained look. "Shh, I know it hurts, but it's hurting me to see you like this," she cooed. "I guess you're too young for me to tell you to 'man up', huh?"

She glanced up when he raced out of the room. "Where're you going?" she complained. "You can't leave me alone with him! Jack!"

There was a hysterical edge in her tone, but he ignored it, returning with the appliance and plugging it into the socket outside her room.

"Are you out of your mind?" she insisted over the whine of the vacuum and Aaron's high-pitched wails when he turned it on, looking at him like he'd just sprouted a second head as he began pushing it along the hallway. "Do you wanna upset him even more?"

"Just watch him," he assured her. "And keep doing what I just showed you."

She went back to massaging him, murmuring soft words to him, and when Jack poked his head in a few minutes later, he saw that his eyelids were closed, his fists lax at his sides.

"That's amazing," she told him in an awed whisper. "How d'you know to do that?"

"I'm a doctor, Kate," he deadpanned as he switched it off, deciding against giving her the more rational explanation, about white noise. Let her think that he had some kind of magic touch.

"Is that your way of saying a magician never reveals his secrets?" she teased him, swaddling the unconscious child in his blanket and scooping him against her chest.

"Something like that," he agreed with a grin.

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Part two (where it starts to get a little AU): involves red wine, a discussion about the island and a declaration from Kate... ;)


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews. ;)

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Part 2.

Jack smiled as he stood inside the door to the nursery, watching Kate settle Aaron on his back in his crib. If he hadn't already fallen for her, then he was sure that he would have again after seeing the way that she fussed with the baby's blankets, making sure that he was warm enough before pressing a light kiss to the downy fluff on top of his head.

"You've done a great job with this place," he told her when she straightened, taking everything in as she returned to his side. He could see that she'd put a lot of effort into designing a space for her adopted son, down to the stuffed Australian animals on the bookshelf and dresser that he assumed were there to remind him of Claire. At a glance he counted a platypus, a kookaburra, an emu…

"I wanted it to feel like home, you know?" she explained, tucking the receiver of the baby monitor into the back pocket of her jeans as she eased the door closed behind her.

Her smile was equal parts wistful and ashamed as she added, "I never stayed in one place long enough before."

He didn't know what to say to her when he could hear the pain in her voice, so he decided to take his cue from her and let it go, following her down the kitchen in silence.

"You want a drink?" she asked, opening one of the cabinets, glancing back at him over her shoulder as she took out a wine glass, her expression hopeful. She wasn't ready for him to go yet.

He wasn't ready to go either. It felt like months since he'd seen her, when in reality it couldn't have been more than a week. They were both so busy picking up the pieces of their own lives that their paths rarely seemed to cross anymore.

"Sure," he agreed with a grin, welcoming the chance to unwind and enjoy her company, without any of the usual chaos that seemed to surround their relationship. "I've got time."

She grinned back in return, her green eyes sparking with happiness, and he knew that this was the right answer. "Great."

As she reached inside for another one, he unknotted his damp tie and set it on the bench.

"Feels strange, doesn't it? Being back in the real world?" she said, pulling a bottle of red wine from the refrigerator and kicking the door shut. "Like it was all some weird dream."

The rescue, and the string of lies that came with it, wasn't something that he liked to dwell on. "I wish it was," he agreed, trailing after her into the living room.

The more he saw of her place, the more he liked it: it did look like a home, with Aaron's bouncy chair in the corner, a brightly coloured play mat on the floor, and toys and bottles strewn across the coffee table.

"Here, let me get that," Kate said, rushing over the couch, fishing a blue pacifier out from behind the cushion so that he could sit down. "Maid's day off," she joked with a sheepish grin. "Or nanny's."

He chuckled as she dropped it into the pile with the rest of Aaron's things. "Thanks."

"You ever miss it?" she asked once they were both seated.

Something about her persistence convinced him that she was probing for a response. The question was: what kind and why?

"The island?" he checked, keeping his tone conversational as he uncorked the bottle and poured some into each of the glasses.

"Yeah," she agreed, trying to sound casual as she accepted one from him and raised it to her lips.

This is about _him_, a voice in the back of his mind insisted as he took a sip of his own drink and he couldn't help the stab of jealously that pierced his heart at the idea that she might have an ulterior motive. Of course it was about him. It was _always_ about him. She wanted to go back.

"Sometimes," he admitted, forcing himself to push all thoughts of the past aside and focus on the present. She was here with him now. That was all that mattered. "I miss seeing everyone."

As he considered this, he felt a pang of sadness for all of those left behind: Juliet, Claire, Rose, Bernard, even Locke, and Sawyer, and for those, like Jin, who would never make it home again.

"Me too," she confessed, but he wasn't sure that she'd even been listening when she put her glass down, pulling herself up straighter against the back of the couch and turning so that she was facing him. "You know what else I miss?"

"What?" he agreed, lowering his own glass, his mouth going dry at the intensity of the look she was giving him. He'd never seen her so purposeful around him before. Whatever she was about to tell him, he had no doubt that it was important.

He just hoped that he was wrong about it being about Sawyer.

He almost breathed a sigh of relief when she continued, "The beach," fixing him with a meaningful gaze, her smile wistful, until she added, "Knowing you're only a couple of tents away."

It wasn't the declaration of love that he'd longed for, but even so, it caught him off guard; as hard as he tried, he couldn't seem to formulate a coherent reply, staring at her stupidly, his heart thudding against his ribcage. "Kate, I—"

Before he could figure out how to finish the sentence, she leant forward and cupped the sides of his jaw in her palms, guiding his face to hers and kissing him.

At first, he couldn't believe what was happening; as time went on he became aware of other sensations: the fruity scent of her shampoo – wild and feminine at the same time – the pressure of her thumbs digging into his cheeks, the urgency of her mouth as it moved against his.

It reminded him of the first and only time that he'd ever been that close to her, except that tonight, he was the one who broke it, grazing her lips with one last chaste peck.

"It's late and I've got an early start in the morning," he told her, glancing at his watch so that he didn't have to see the disappointment in her eyes, afraid that if he didn't reign himself in, he would end up allowing something that they would both regret later. He didn't want one night because she was feeling nostalgic. He didn't think that he could survive it if that was all it was. "I should head off, but I'll call you tomorrow, okay? Let me know if you need anything else."

He started to get to his feet, hoping to avoid the embarrassment of another apology, but she snatched hold of his sleeve, tugging him back down beside her.

"Stay. _Please_," she insisted, her expression earnest and he found himself frozen in place, waiting for her to go on.

"What I'm trying to say is – I've missed _you_," she confessed, with a nervous laugh, twisting her hands together in her lap. "I miss having you in my life – the way you always seem to know what to do. I don't think I can do this without you."

She moved in again, so close that he could feel her warm, wine scented breath hitting his face. "I need you, Jack. _We_ need you."

He wasn't sure that this was true – she was the most capable woman that he'd ever met – but that didn't stop a slow grin from spreading over his face. He couldn't think of anything that would make him happier than spending the rest of his life with her, in that house, doing exactly what they'd just done.

"You're sure?" he checked, to make sure that she wasn't sending him mixed signals. The last thing he wanted was to ruin what they already had. "You really wanna do this? You and me? Aaron?"

He forced himself not to think about what would happen after her trial; they would deal with that as it came.

"Yeah, Jack, I'm sure. I really wanna do this," she agreed, laughing as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her again, pulling her down with him on the couch.

She drew back after a few moments, her smile coy, keeping her forehead pressed against his. "Besides, if tonight is any indication, it looks like we could do with a doctor around here…"


End file.
